House Democrats Take Demands for Trump Hotel Records to Court

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Critics have charged that the Trump International Hotel has become a conduit for foreign governments, lobbyists and other special interests seeking favor with the president to channel money to the Trump family.CreditAlex Wroblewski for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Democrats from the House Oversight Committee, stonewalled by the Trump administration and fuming at their Republican colleagues, sued the General Services Administration on Thursday to try to force the release of documents relating to its lease with the Trump International Hotel here.

The suit, which has little legal precedent, is likely to be a key test of Democrats’ ability to force oversight of the Trump administration without control of committees or subpoena power in either chamber of Congress. They have accused Republicans who control both of neglecting their responsibility to hold the administration to account.

A victory in court would grant the lawmakers immediate access to government documents related to the hotel’s operations and lease that they say would shed light on its finances, possible foreign payments to the hotel and the G.S.A.’s ruling that the hotel did not violate the terms of its lease when President Trump took office. A favorable ruling would also open a fruitful avenue for Oversight Committee Democrats to use on other issues.

“The lawsuit is not just about a hotel in Washington, D.C.,” Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said at a news conference on Thursday. “This is about the president defying a federal statute and denying our ability as members of Congress to fulfill our constitutional duty to serve as a check on the executive branch.”

Mr. Cummings was joined in the suit, filed in United States District Court here, by 16 other Democrats on the committee.

A spokeswoman for the committee’s chairman, Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, said he had no immediate comment. A spokeswoman for the G.S.A. said the agency did not comment on pending litigation.

At issue is the historic Old Post Office building in Washington that the Trump Organization leased from the federal government and transformed into a luxury hotel with upscale bars and restaurants. Critics have charged that the hotel has become a conduit for foreign governments, lobbyists and other special interests seeking favor with the president to channel money to the Trump family.

But Democratic efforts to look into the hotel’s financial transactions have gone nowhere. The latest Democratic gambit hinges on an obscure 1928 law allowing members of the Oversight Committee to demand information from the executive branch without a subpoena or the support of the committee’s chairman. Known as the “Seven Member” rule, the law specifically says that any seven members of the committee, regardless of political party, can sign a request that an agency must comply with.

Lawmakers from both parties have invoked the rule in the past, although sparingly. In 1994, Republican committee members twice used it to obtain documents from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the government’s Office of Thrift Supervision.

But there are significant legal questions about whether it can be enforced in court. Henry A. Waxman, a former Democratic representative from California, twice sued the executive branch to enforce the rule when he was the committee’s top Democrat — with different results.

In the first case, a United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled in 2002 that the George W. Bush administration had to produce data related to the 2000 census requested by Oversight Committee members. The Justice Department appealed the ruling, but no resolution was reached because the data was ordered released in a separate and concurrent Freedom of Information Act case.

Mr. Waxman and fellow Democrats sued the administration again in 2006. This time, though, a different California judge found that the lawmakers did not have standing to bring the case because their suit had not been authorized by House leadership.

Mark J. Rozell, a professor at George Mason University who studies executive privilege, said he expected that standing may again be a hurdle for the lawmakers.

“It’s a difficult case,” he said. “This is a real separation of powers dilemma for the courts to try to untangle. You have a fairly obscure 1928 enactment by Congress that some court decisions have determined is not enforceable under certain circumstances."

David C. Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor who is representing the lawmakers, said on Thursday that he was optimistic that the Washington court, given its recent record, would allow the suit to proceed.

“The only defense the government is going to have is they can’t sue,” Mr. Vladeck said. “And that argument has fallen flat in recent years in the District of Columbia. The most recent cases decided by this court have all permitted entitled of Congress to go ahead and sue.”

Democratic lawmakers will also argue that they made an identical request using the rule during the final months of the Obama administration and that the G.S.A. honored the request, producing relevant documents in January.

When the members renewed their request under the rule in February, they say their letter and subsequent follow-ups were ignored by the G.S.A. In July, the agency wrote to Mr. Cummings, citing a May opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that found the administration need not reply to information requests from lawmakers in the minority. Neither the letter nor the ruling mentions the “Seven Member” rule.

“There is one thing, and one thing only, that has changed in this case,” Mr. Cummings said on Thursday. “President Trump is now sitting in the Oval Office.”

Separation of powers cases can take years to wind through the courts, but Mr. Rozell said a ruling in the Democrats’ favor could open the door to a flood of document requests and with it a potential constitutional showdown over the executive branch’s prerogative to protect certain information.

“If they can prevail in this case, then it’s open game for these members to go after just about any and all information they want from the executive branch,” Mr. Rozell said.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: House Democrats’ Suit Aims to Force Release Of Trump Hotel Records. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe